Glyphosate is currently the herbicide with the highest use worldwide for weed control. It has been detected in different water sources, including drinking water, which could be generating potential damage to human health. In the Metropolitan Area of Cúcuta, intensive rice cultivation is predominant, and as it grows in flooded areas, the use of herbicides has greater contact with water bodies, which are used as sources of supply. Based on this, the concentration of glyphosate was quantified in five sampling points of surface and drinking water of the Pamplonita and Zulia rivers, using UV-Vis spectrophotometry, establishing that the concentration found in drinking water (216 and 204.5 µg/L) was below the maximum allowable limits of countries such as the United States, Canada, and Australia and above those of the European Union and the United Kingdom. Once the occurrence was identified, the removal capacity of glyphosate was evaluated using membrane technology through reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) in a pilot plant, for which response surface optimization models were implemented, and 100% removals were obtained, with repeatability close to 1% with respect to other reported investigations, highlighting that the NF process was more efficient even though the molecular weight of glyphosate was below the limit of the membrane. In contrast, it was determined that, according to the concentrations found in the drinking water supplied to the Metropolitan Area of Cúcuta, this has a low risk according to the guidelines for drinking water quality in Canada and a moderate risk according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The conventional systems currently used for water purification are insufficient to remove traces of contaminants such as herbicides. Therefore, it is necessary to implement new technologies.
Reuse of wastewater, as well as recovery of valuable, toxic or harmful products in industrial discharges, still represents an important issue, not only because it reduces the effect on receiving water bodies, but also because of the economic resources it represents for industry itself. In this research, in situ regeneration of Mn2SO4 is evaluated, for its reuse as the main raw material in the original process of a fungicide plant. The regeneration is evaluated by selective recovery of Mn2+, Zn2+ and SO4= present in the wastewater produced by the industrial plant, and utilizing nanofiltration, electro-electrodialysis and chemical precipitation as separation alternatives. Each alternative was designed and evaluated technically and economically through simulations in Aspen Plus®, with data and information of the real process supplied by the company. Because zinc concentration is relatively low, its selective recovery was not attractive. The resulting Mn2SO4 solution and treated water quality in conventional alternatives were significantly poor with high costs. In contrast, nanofiltration and electro-electrodialysis alternatives generate water and by-products of higher quality and reuse potential with significantly lower costs. However, their viability depends on the membrane performance. The results were satisfactory, but future experimental studies are required to optimize the alternatives and define the correct pretreatment process.
Se diseñó, construyó y operó una unidad de electrodiálisis para estudiar experimentalmente la recuperación como ácido acético del acetato producido durante la digestión anaerobia de desechos orgánicos, usando soluciones acuosas de acetato de sodio a diferentes concentraciones (5 g/l, 15 g/l y 30 g/l) para simular el licor de fermentación anaerobia. La electrodiálisis se llevó a cabo aplicando 8 diferentes voltajes a la unidad y monitoreando periódicamente el comportamiento de las variables principales del proceso. La tasa máxima de producción de ácido acético lograda fue de 1674 mg/l y se encontró que esta fue proporcional al voltaje aplicado, caudal de licor de fermentación alimentado a la unidad y a la densidad de corriente utilizada. El ácido acético se recuperó en agua destilada y adicionalmente en una solución acuosa de etanol. La electrodiálisis resultó ser una alternativa técnicamente viable en principio, para la producción de ácidos grasos volátiles, pues los resultados obtenidos demuestran que es posible hacerlo con relativa facilidad.
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